FORESTERS IN WORLD'S LARGEST REGIMENT 



649 



be injured here at home than to send them into foreign 

 battlefields, on the theory that a man who becomes ill or 

 injured in an American city may procure hospital treat- 

 ment at much less cost than is involved in the same treat- 

 ment in a zone of war. So far, however, no earnest critic 

 has come forward with any such suggestion. Nor has it 

 been urged that the relief agencies be abolished because 

 of the expense involved. Perhaps all of the possibilities 

 in the line of such criticism are not yet exhausted. The 

 further progress of the war may be illumined by many 

 thoughtful suggestions of this nature. In common with 

 the pacifists such profound economists have ideas that 

 are prolific as well as picturesque and we may yet hear 

 them urging that it is cheaper for the soldiers to stay at 

 home than for the government to go to the expense of 

 sending them across the seas. The subject is limitless. 



One of the important duties of the trained foresters is 

 the selection of those trees which may be best harvested 

 without ruining the forests. The woodsmen and sawmill 

 workers include men skilled in the handling of lumber 

 from the time the tree is marked for cutting until the log 

 passes through the mill and the material is ready for use 

 in the building of trenches or otherwise. 



A constant problem of the American lumber worker in 

 the French forests is the handling of trees in which frag- 

 ments of shell are embedded. The German spirit of de- 

 struction in the enemy's country has left large sections of 

 woodland in which serious damage has been done. 

 Chunks of shell have found lodgment in the bodies of 

 trees and in the course of months these pieces of metal 

 have in many cases become overgrown and difficult of 

 detection through superficial inspection. Consequently 

 there is trouble when the log comes under the saw and 

 this makes the work of producing lumber especially diflfi- 

 cult and an undertaking requiring much care. 



Another phase of destructiveness practiced by the in- 

 vaders has been the damage done to orchard trees. Vast 

 areas of the trees were cut down completely and in other 

 vast areas, where pursuit left no time for this process, 

 German "Kultur" expressed itself in cutting off a circle 

 of bark around each tree. By this latter process it was 

 sought to kill apple, peach, plum, apricot and cherry 

 trees which had been growing for years. Trained work- 

 ers succeeded in saving trees of both classes. Those 

 which had been cut down were grafted to their own 

 stumps by careful treatment and during the recent sum- 

 mer they again blossomed and bore fruit. Those which 

 had been ringed were treated with grafting cement and 

 the wounds carefully bandaged. In this work not only 

 French soldiers were engaged under officers familiar 

 with forestry and tree surgery, but army surgeons and 

 Red Cross workers gave assistance. Frequently use was 

 made of bandages that had been prepared for human 

 wounds. When supplies ran short tar and clay were used 

 instead of cement and twisted moss was tied around the 

 dressed wounds instead of bandages. By these methods 

 years have been saved in restoring the otherwise ruined 

 orchards. 



Late in October French aviators found that in the Laon 

 sector the German troops were again resorting to the de- 

 struction of villages and trees, indicating another "strate- 

 gic retreat," similar to that which took place earlier on 

 the Arras Camines front. 



Vivid pictures of the ruin that has been wrought is 

 given by German papers. The Berlin Lokal Anzeiger 

 describes a strip of country from six to eight miles in 

 width and extending along the whole of the new German 

 position as having been turned by the Imperial army 

 into dead territory, "presenting a terrible barrier of deso- 

 lation to any enemy hardy enough to advance against our 



WHERE THE SOUND OF THE SAWMILL BLENDS WITH THE R'lAR OF ARTILLERY 



This is a picture of a sawmill somewhere near the French hattle front. Some of the sawmill units are located so near to the fighting lines that they 

 hear the booming of cannon and the bursting of shells as a part of their daily routine. Shells embedded in tree trunks are a frequent source 

 of trouble in the operation of the sawmills, but in spite of the handicaps the output of each unit is constant and indispensable to military opera- 

 lions The mill here pictured is typical of the environment of the sawmill men who go with the Forest Regiments. 



